HN Explorer

Tell HN: Hidden website design/usability gems?

24 points by stijnm ↗ HN
Hi All,

I just wanted to share this little unexpected design gem I discovered through a link over at Gizmodo. Go here http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/level-camera-cube/ and click 'add to cart'. Even the shopping cart turns its frown upside down.

It is smooth, well executed and adds to the user experience. I can also imagine this visual touch is a real boost in usability for less techy people.

Have you recently come across any other little unexpected innovative touches in a website which brought a smile to your face and improved usability?

12 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 34.5 ms ] thread
colinplamondon
Not technical or new, but hitboxes, hitboxes, hitboxes. Add 5px of padding to your anchors and a rollover color, it makes a really huge difference.
jacquesm
Neat little trick! Also a neat little product, ideal for selling over the web.
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yannis
Great trick! Movement always catches the user's eye, even my cat reacts if she sees anything jumping! It appears it was all done with YUI. I guess moving the image with position absolute and placing it in front of all other elements with the z-index.
russell
Neat product. I had to buy one for my GF, the artist. The whole shopping cart experience is just a little bit better than usual. It asked me for my name and the used it to populate the CC and shipping names. The messages were nice, not institutional.

EDIT: Must be the HN effect: they are out of stock and wont ship for another week, :-(

superamit
Hey thanks! We spent a long time getting the timing on the swoop and the bounce when it lands in the cart right. Cool to see someone notice. :)
alanthonyc
Hey, that's a great site even aside from the little animated cart.

Lot's of cool photo gear!

p.s. I almost bought 24 camera cubes, I was having so much fun clicking the button.

fsniper
Yeah that's what i was doing too :). Makes shopping like playing a game.
weaksauce
That's a cool trick. Very usable. What are you using for the shopping cart? Is it homebrew or something off the shelf like Satchmo or magento?
superamit
Homebrew. We tried Magento but found the code to be a pile of spaghetti.
weaksauce
Congrats on the site, it is fast and clean. I like it. Out of curiosity what language or frameworks did you use for the backend?